Those things are hideous. I recall being impressed that the ancient (100+ years old) apartment I lived in for the second half of college seemed to have no insects whatsoever, until I saw a gigantic house centipede in the lobby of the first floor. I attempted to crush it but crawled off, and I had to pray like crazy those things wouldn't make it to my efficiency on the second floor...Thankfully they didn't, which is surprising given the amount of food crumbs/piles of dirty clothes I tended to leave around the place.

Plus, they're so bizarrely light when they move with all those legs...It's like they're hovering.

Its a blessing. I have never seen one of these guys go above the first floor (I sleep on the second). I live in a place with an unfinished basement so its damp, and cool, which seems to fit their needs.

That's an Orthodera novaezealandiae - from the scientific name, you can guess where this bug is from. Somewhat a standard looking mantis, except for the very rectangular pronotum and angular eyes. Small species.

You would think in New Zealand there would be a mantis species large enough to take down a Weta. There isn't though.

However, Plistospilota guineensis is probably large enough. This is one of the largest mantises in terms of mass - there are mantises that are longer, but are skinny stick-like mantises.

Brunneria borealis is a good example - these girls can get up to 5 or 6 inches long. They are really stick-like though, their camouflage is actually to resemble blades of grass. Interesting side fact: There are no known sightings of a male Brunneria borealis, this species is entirely female and parthenogenetic.

_________________And they'll tell you black is really white - The moon is just the sun at night - And when you walk in golden halls - You get to keep the gold that falls - It's Heaven and Hell

Yes. Not quite as often nowadays but I'll probably look into doing so.

It's tricky since for most of my mantises at the stage they are at, I don't know their gender. When they get older it's easier to tell, there's also a solid rule about abdominal segments (Males have 8, females have 6) that one can tell the gender of even at first instar.

When I had large amounts of baby mantises, sometimes I marked the tops of their container with Greek letters. That's handy to keep track of molting schedules, though I don't rely on molting schedules as much anymore since I know what to look for in behavior and physical appearance (A mantis's abdomen will remain fat if they are approaching a molt, while if they are still in the early days of their instar that abdomen will shrink in the day or two after feeding them)

I have a Sibylla pretiosa that just molted to what I'm guessing is third instar. I correctly deduced it was going to molt by its behavior around fruit flies - it completely ignored them. Mantises don't usually do that. I put this mantis in a sort of observational spot where I can easily check on them without disturbing them - sure enough this mantis molted just a couple hours ago. A Texas Unicorn mantis molted yesterday. I'm expecting an Orchid mantis female to molt within the week.

_________________And they'll tell you black is really white - The moon is just the sun at night - And when you walk in golden halls - You get to keep the gold that falls - It's Heaven and Hell

ok dudes, today i thought i was taking a photo of one harrier hawk but in fact there were TWO!?one is not that common but seeing two is a first for me, i used to live on a farm and we'd only ever see one at a time

here are some shitty photos, i won't subject you to the awful videoalthough i did get a video a few weeks ago of a different hawk, or at least in a different place

these things are about the size of a small chicken and their wingspan is about a metre they are hard core, have no competition, will destroy any other bird anywhere near them [like wood pigeons] and will easily grab a rabbit, they are that big.the only birds i've ever seen harass or attack them are magpies and tui, tui are very aggressive and often have spectacular dogfights oddly enough both magpies and tui are black and white

So my friends and I took a few shots of scotch, got some chewing tobacco and decided to mess around in the forest. It's a cool spot, there's all these antique stuff from the 70s someone dumped there. We go farther in and a huge stream of dear run past us, there must have been at least ten of them. Never been so close to that many deer before. My friend says he saw a whole bunch of wild turkey near the same spot a few days ago.

I live in Denmark, and needless to say we have next to no fancy animals at all. The only animal that even comes close to being deadly is a small viper snake that could maybe kill an infant. Maybe. It's kind of a big deal if you spot a squirrel, mouse or hawk. That said, the wolf has reintroduced itself to your country! That's pretty cool.

So this crazy looking thing just invaded my room.The 5mm raster on the paper should serve as a pretty good scale. I've never seen anything like this before and have no idea what it is. Looks a bit like a cross between a wasp and a crane fly. It's kind of ugly and pretty at the same time. I like that it has those big, moth-like antenna.

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Metantoine wrote:

If Summoning is the sugar of fantasy metal, is Manowar the bacon?

CorpseFister wrote:

Personally, I prefer to know nothing of the esoteric hierarchy of MA and the profane rituals required to attain rank.

I've got these giant spotted cricket grasshopper things that have recently invaded my basement in the last several years (they only seem to appear in the mid-to-late fall for some reason), an ex once told me they were called Jerusalem round crickets but after doing a google search they don't look the same at all... these hideous fuckers can jump 2-3 feet off the ground and are about the size of a grasshopper with back legs that kinda stick up in the air. Any idea what these things are and more importantly how can I wipe them off the face of my basement? I'd post a picture but I dunno what they're called and "hideous cricket grasshopper jumper" doesn't yield any fruitful results on google

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Smoking_Gnu wrote:

I tend to be pretty skeptical of the sanity of any person who doesn't like Let the Devil In.

Any idea what these things are and more importantly how can I wipe them off the face of my basement? I'd post a picture but I dunno what they're called and "hideous cricket grasshopper jumper" doesn't yield any fruitful results on google

All these bug/insect posts prompted an inquiry I'd like you all to participate in responding to: what is your view on humane treatment of bugs/insects?

I ask because when I was a kid, I delighted in tormenting them, especially grasshoppers and large ants. I would grab them and tear their legs off, but not kill them. I did this quite a bit, but looking back on it now, I feel horrible. So because something is weaker and seemingly more insignificant than us, that gives us the green light to go ahead and toy with their lives for our own amusement? I know people tend to have more compassion for larger animals such as birds and mammals, but should bugs/insects be excluded? Nowadays, whenever I see a bug/insect visible in my path as I walk, I always step out of their way (snails tend to be the most noticeable due to their size), or if I see spiders crawling around my walls, I'll leave them alone. Perhaps I was just being a dumb fucking kid doing dumb fucking things, just like how many people do when they're kids, but if I could, I'd go back in time and smack my 8 year old self up the head.

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The_Beast_in_Black wrote:

Sathanas_BM wrote:

The biggest influence of Swedish Death Metal is In Flames.

That's not right. That's not even wrong. It's so fundamentally inaccurate that I think it may well be incorrectable.

Last edited by Viral on Tue Jul 16, 2013 3:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Amen. Sure there are insects that are simply pests and nobody should feel too much guilt for ending their little existences, but killing bugs just because it's no effort for us, that's pretty douchy, destructive behaviour. Life is such a wonderful thing and even the smallest microbe is a marvel of existence. And needless destruction of life is probably one of the most unambiguously wrong things a person can do. Torture is a whole different level of shitbaggery of course. As if the world didn't have enough needless suffering as it is.

Even as a kid I was pretty reluctant to kill anything. I always felt a mixture of disgust and moral conviction against needlessly killing even the smallest insect. Even pests. Valuing different species differently just because some are more "cute" (so arbitrary) than others always struck me as a particularly severe form of mental dissonance.

_________________

Metantoine wrote:

If Summoning is the sugar of fantasy metal, is Manowar the bacon?

CorpseFister wrote:

Personally, I prefer to know nothing of the esoteric hierarchy of MA and the profane rituals required to attain rank.

All these bug/insect posts prompted an inquiry I'd like you all to participate in responding to: what is your view on humane treatment of bugs/insects?

I ask because when I was a kid, I delighted in tormenting them, especially grasshoppers and large ants. I would grab them and tear their legs off, but not kill them. I did this quite a bit, but looking back on it now, I feel horrible. So because something is weaker and seemingly more insignificant than us, that gives us the green light to go ahead and toy with their lives for our own amusement. I know people tend to have more compassion for larger animals such as birds and mammals, but should bugs/insects be excluded? Nowadays, whenever I see a bug/insect visible in my path as I walk, I always step out of their way (snails tend to be the most noticeable due to their size), or if I see spiders crawling around my walls, I'll leave them alone. Perhaps I was just being a dumb fucking kid doing dumb fucking things, just like how many people do when they're kids, but if I could, I'd go back in time and smack my 8 year old self up the head.

Totally agreed, I even did the same to grasshoppers and ants back when I was a kid lol. I didn't mean to torture them, for me it was just "doing experiments" back then when my stupid little brain didn't recognize bugs as living things too(they didn't bleed so it didn't had the same impact as, say, hurting a bird or even a fish).

Nowadays I try my best to not harm them, I even try to save them from drowning in pools and stuff.

All these bug/insect posts prompted an inquiry I'd like you all to participate in responding to: what is your view on humane treatment of bugs/insects?

I ask because when I was a kid, I delighted in tormenting them, especially grasshoppers and large ants. I would grab them and tear their legs off, but not kill them. I did this quite a bit, but looking back on it now, I feel horrible. So because something is weaker and seemingly more insignificant than us, that gives us the green light to go ahead and toy with their lives for our own amusement. I know people tend to have more compassion for larger animals such as birds and mammals, but should bugs/insects be excluded? Nowadays, whenever I see a bug/insect visible in my path as I walk, I always step out of their way (snails tend to be the most noticeable due to their size), or if I see spiders crawling around my walls, I'll leave them alone. Perhaps I was just being a dumb fucking kid doing dumb fucking things, just like how many people do when they're kids, but if I could, I'd go back in time and smack my 8 year old self up the head.

Yeah, I get you. I always had a bit of curiosity regarding insects and such, but it wasn't until I started reading this website that I grew to truly appreciate and respect our many-legged neighbours. Creatures such as leeches and, well, worms in general still freak me out a bit, but my reaction towards them has gone from "AGH KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT" to "alright, it's just a squirming tube of meat, it can't hurt you". Hell, I have even learned to find many of the little bastards cute.

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Nochielo wrote:

Crick wrote:

Years from now, no one will remember Gandhi. They will speak only of Fenriz.

If it's in my house: it dies, otherwise live and let live But I'll happily kill something that's injured to put it out of its misery, people taking a Seagull with a busted wing or a Rat with mange to the Vet or SPCA I find ridiculous.There is no need to prolong any suffering, unless it's an endangered species and they are needed for breeding.

Out in the country where I grew up we'd come across partly alive road kill quite often, which is awful, but a quick swerve and it's all over for them = no more suffering in agony.I'll keep some of the farm tales to myself for now... some things just have to be done

Weird stuff, I saw what I was certain was a dead cockroach on the floor at work this morning. I literally even kicked it off into a corner to get it out of the middle of the hall... It didn't flinch.

At least a few hours later, it's still in the exact same place I'd kicked it... I was sweeping up all the dust and debris in the halls, and when I swept it out of the corner, it suddenly sprung to life and started running around like nothing when I lifted up my dust mop.

Shit freaked me out and I stomped it. First time I think I've ever felt the slightest tinge of remorse about killing a cockroach, too.

I still can't stand the things, though. They tormented me when I was younger, so I think I have every right to fucking hate them.

I used to enjoy pretending to be some kind of evil demigod who destroyed anthills/killed ants in different clever ways, but I feel bad about it now... basically, if I'm not literally afraid of it, I feel guilty about ever having killed it or killing it now (talking specifically about bugs here--I can't kill anything "bigger" than that unless it's a HUGE bug, which, naturally would scare the fuck out of me)*. I even feel guilty about fishing as a kid. I don't think I could do it anymore.

But I'm scared of roaches because I've lived in various nasty, low-rent apartment complexes full of them as a kid. I'm scared of spiders, too. I don't feel comfortable unless they're FUCKING DEAD. I even go as far as burning egg sacks with a (LONG) lighter. Not about to get up close to those things.

I'm not a sadist, though. I learned a long time ago that even killing things like bugs makes me feel bad... I just fucking can't tolerate some of them. It's kind of a "me or them" scenario when I kill them, though, not something I take pleasure in.

*I even felt bad about killing ants I've seen on my computer table recently... Bad enough that I'd squish them as quickly as possible just to get rid of them, and then eat them to feel justified in doing so. Not fucking joking. I'm a total pussy.

*I even felt bad about killing ants I've seen on my computer table recently... Bad enough that I'd squish them as quickly as possible just to get rid of them, and then eat them to feel justified in doing so. Not fucking joking. I'm a total pussy.

I... what? Just, what?

Anyway, I think most insects are cute, truly. If there's any spiders inside I put them in a jar and set them free outside. Hell, not too long ago I saved a cockroach that was stuck in the garage and set it free - I still haven't lived that one down haha. I used to be terrified of them though (even a year or so ago) and would kill any spider or bug that got into my house. I feel bad about it now. I remember once a few years back there was a red-back on the front door that was freaking the shit out of me. I, being the smart person I am, grabbed the nearest thing to me to kill it, which happened to be a nerf gun. I shot it at very close range with the nerf gun. If I'd been smarter, I would have realized that shooting something with a nerf gun at close range causes the bullet to ricochet off the solid surface you shoot, and the bullet can hit you in the face. I'm not smart though, and spent 10 minutes flailing around because I had red-back spider guts on my forehead.

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gomorro wrote:

I felt like if Ygritte shoved me chilly up my ass (Thats right, touched by fire)

Anyway, I find most insects to be cute. However, I have no mercy for mosquitos. Those things bite you, make you itch, and are horrible. Besides them, most bugs, even pests, can be cute. I find slugs, with their slow vulnerability, twirling antennae, and general harmlessness, to be super cute. Same with bumblebees and most spiders (for different reasons, obviously). I mean, how could anyone hate these?